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April 8, 2008

The World’s Game Comes to Seattle

(Seattle, Washington) Seattle will have its own Major League Soccer team starting in 2009. Woohoo! The new name was unveiled today during a news conference at the Space Needle, and will officially be called Seattle Sounders FC.

In a rare show of democracy in sports, the new name was generated by write-in votes (82% of the nearly 15,000 votes cast), with none of the 3 finalists (Seattle Alliance; Seattle Republic; Seattle FC) as winner. The people have spoken!

“It was a groundswell,” majority owner Joe Roth said. “I think it’s a great start for the franchise. It’s a great start for us as owners to trust the fans, to show that we are about democracy in sports and set up situations in which fans have rights that they don’t have with other American sports teams.”